CHAPTER 14: SELF CONTRLOL OR DISCIPLINE
“But I keep under my body and bring it under subjection...”
----Paul (I Cor.9:26-27)
In the last chapter, we examined the concept of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is an essential principle for success. But unrestrained enthusiasm can also lead to trouble. Thus, we must balance the scale with our next principle, the principle of discipline, which forms the subject of this chapter.
As I did with enthusiasm, I’ve also taken the time to look up the meaning and origin of the word .discipline. To begin with, the dictionary defines discipline as follows:
training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement; controlled behavior resulting from disciplinary training; self-control. Control obtained by enforcing compliance or order, a systematic method to obtain obedience: a military discipline; a state of order based on submission to rules and authority: punishment intended to correct or train, a set of rules or methods, as those regulating the practice of a church or monastic order, a branch of knowledge or teaching; tr.v. Dis·ci·plined, dis·ci·plin·ing, dis·ci·plines, to train by instruction and practice, especially to teach self-control to, to teach to obey rules or accept authority, to punish in order to gain control or enforce obedience, to impose order on: needed to discipline their study habits. Middle English, from old French descepline from Latin disciplina, from discipulus, pupil. See disciple.
So, we see that discipline is related to disciple. Further, going back to the original Hebrew and Greek meaning of the word as found in the old and new testaments of the Bible, we see that one of the root words from which the Hebrew word for "discipline" comes includes the idea of teaching and instruction. Correction and chastisement follow in the definition, but it is clear that there is plenty of room for a person to practice self-discipline.
The only example I can think of from my novel is that it must have taken a lot of self-discipline for Barabbas and men to train in order to go against Pilate. Yet this was would be an example of discipline apart from wisdom. Solomon, credited as being the wisest man who ever lived, began his book of Proverbs by stating that discipline goes hand in hand with wisdom. The wise man will learn of God so that he can live a disciplined and prudent life. Pray that God's Holy Spirit would show you areas in your own life in which you can begin to practice greater self-discipline and therefore enjoy the fruits of a Godly life.
The Greek phrase that Paul uses when he describes how he must beat his own body actually depicts a man who beats himself black and blue in that area of his face just beneath his eyes. Sounds a little harsh, eh? But Paul then completes his treatise implying that he knows if he does not discipline himself, no matter how harshly it may seem to others, he himself may be disqualified for the very prize for which he was advising others to strive!
The opposite of self-discipline is self-indulgence. Self-indulgence is thinking about how you feel at a given moment, then deciding what action, if any, to take and worrying about the consequences later. In my novel, as well as in the gospel records (e.g., Mark 6:17-28), we see that Herod indulged himself by loving and marrying his brother‘s wife and also by overly enjoying Salome’s dancing. We see what bad end these actions led to. Self-discipline is thinking first about the consequences (if you do or if you don‘t), taking the appropriate action, and feeling great about doing the right thing once it‘s done. Self-indulgence tends to build guilt after the fact which, in turn, reduces your enthusiasm for yourself and the work that you‘re doing.
Of course, we need to have great dreams and be enthusiastic about them, but it is through discipline that those dreams become concrete.
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QUOTABLE QUOTES:
1) ”The key which lifts one to every aspiration, while others are caught up in the mire of mediocrity-- is self-discipline. With self-discipline, all things are possible.”
---Theodore Roosevelt
2) “An idle man is a wretched man.”
---John Burroughs
3) ”Though pleasure is the one and only goal to which incontinence is thought to lead men, she herself cannot bring them to it, whereas nothing produces pleasure so surely as self-control. “
---Xenophon
5) ”In reading the lives of great men, I find that the first victory they won was over themselves.”
---Harry S. Truman
6) ” Self-discipline is an act of cultivation. It requires you to connect today’s actions to tomorrow’s results. ”
---Gary Ryan Blair
7) ”The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.”
---Bum Philips
8) ”By constant self-discipline and self-control, you can develop greatness of character.”
---Grenville Kleiser
9) ”We all have dreams. But, in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.”
---Jesse Owens
10) ”Without self-discipline, success is impossible period.”
---Unknown
11) ”I don’t like self-discipline, but I like where it will get me.”
---elev8
12) ”As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility and commitment.”
---Unknown
13) ”Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
---Paul (Hebrews 12:1)
14) ”I press toward the mark....”
---Paul (Philippians 3:14)
15) ”I run not as uncertainly; I fight, not as one that beats the air; but I keep under my body and bring it under subjection....”
---Paul (I Cor.9:26-27)